Cost of Illegal Immigration in Colorado
We the taxpayers are not only bailing out wallstreet and automakers (along with UAW workers), but we are also footing the bill for illegal immigrants in every state. The cost of illegal immigration has skyrocketed over the years since our government is not taking care of business (oh, what a surprise). An illegal immigration news website named FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) has studied and created a report on how much it costs the state of Colorado for illegal immigration.
The cost of illegal immigration for the Rocky Mountain state is $1.1 Billion dollars annually. The FAIR study observes the most obvious costs. For an example, expenses related to medicare, incarceration and education. There are other costs that the report doesn't pick up since they only focused on the major expenses.
Here is part of the report from FAIR:
Education. Based on an estimate of 35,000 school-age illegal aliens and 49,000 U.S.-born school-aged children of illegal alien parents and estimated per pupil costs of $11,000 per year for public K-12 schooling, Coloradans spend about $925 million annually on educating the children of illegal immigrants. An additional $68 million is being spent annually on programs for limited English students, most of whom are likely children of illegal aliens. Those estimates exclude federal contributions to those programs. More than one in ten (10.8%) K-12 public school students in Colorado is the child of an illegal alien, and this share has grown as the illegal resident population has grown.
Health Care. State-funded uncompensated outlays for health care provided to Colorado's illegal alien population amount to more than an estimated $82 million a year. That is a net cost after crediting compensation from the federal government. Additionally, Coloradans who have medical insurance also pay higher medical insurance bills to help cover the costs of those without insurance.
Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating deportable aliens in Colorado's state and local prisons amounts to more than $38 million a year. This estimate also is a net amount after deducting compensation received from the federal government. It does not include short-term detention costs, related law enforcement and judicial expenditures, or the monetary impact of the crimes that result in incarceration.
So there is your tax dollars at work, at least if you live in Colorado. For the ones that live outside the state, don't worry, you're footing some of the bill as well since the federal government supplements a lot of these programs. So where is the Colorado State politicians concerning these problems with illegal immigration? How about on the federal level - George Bush? Nance Pelosi? Harry Reid? How about Barak Obama? I'm not going to hold my breath.
